Bobcats at Bucks
The Charlotte Bobcats have a great opportunity to extend their winning streak to four games when they visit the last-place Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday in the first meeting since the teams made a four-player trade last month. The Bobcats are 7-4 since acquiring guards Gary Neal and Luke Ridnour from the Bucks in exchange for guard Ramon Sessions and forward Jeff Adrien. Charlotte has won the first three meetings with Milwaukee this season and will catch the Bucks a day after they suffered through a 115-94 loss in New York.
Al Jefferson continued his dominant campaign with 25 points and 16 rebounds in Charlotte's 105-93 win over Minnesota on Friday, which pulled the club within two games of .500 for the first time since it was 14-16. The Bucks will be returning from an 0-3 road trip after the Knicks handed them their last defeat. Nate Wolters scored 15 points for Milwaukee, which fell behind early and never seriously threatened surging New York while falling to 5-27 on the road.
TV: 1 p.m. ET, SportSouth (Charlotte)
ABOUT THE BOBCATS (32-34): Neal was recently sat for one game due to what Charlotte called "an internal team matter," which raises some questions given his past of stirring things up before the trade. However, Neal's impact since his arrival with the Bobcats has become increasingly clear, as he has produced 19 points off the bench in each of his last two games and is averaging 12.8 in eight contests with Charlotte. More importantly, he has provided a team short on 3-point options a big boost from beyond the arc, making all six of his tries in the last two games and converting 51.9 percent of his long-range attempts since the trade.
ABOUT THE BUCKS (13-53): The three-game swoon has Milwaukee still separated by 2 1/2 games from Philadelphia at the bottom of the Eastern Conference and is pushing the club toward all-time franchise depths. The franchise record for losses in a season is 62, which came in 1993-94, and second on the list was a 57-loss campaign two years later. The Bucks play nine of their final 15 games on the road, including a challenging four-game West Coast trip beginning Tuesday in Portland.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Charlotte has never swept the season series from Milwaukee.
2. The Bobcats held the Bucks to a season-low 72 points in the only prior meeting in Milwaukee.
3. Jefferson is averaging 22.5 points on 51.5 percent shooting on the road, compared to 20.4 and 49.4 at home.